Guide: Migrating from v0.3.8 to 128-bit RNS versions

[markqvist]

From RNS version 0.3.9 and onwards, the address space will be 128 bits wide. Older versions are incompatible with the new address size and wire format, and will not work on networks based on 0.3.9+. For more background info on why this change was made, see this post.

To use the new Reticulum version, you must upgrade your systems via pip or similar. When upgrading an existing system, there is a few things you should be aware of:

• You can reuse identities and configuration files from previous versions, but...
• All destination hashes will change!
• As a result of this, all known paths and destinations will be forgotten by your instance, and will have to be relearned.
• You cannot use v0.3.9+ Reticulum on the old testnet nodes. All documentation has been updated with new entry points for the testnet.
• At the first start of Reticulum on v0.3.9, it should automatically discard old information and start using the new address size.
• If problems occur, backup your configuration files, identity files (if necessary) and any data you might need. Then delete the contents of the Reticulum configuration folder, restore your config and any other data, and restart Reticulum.

In short, you should be able to simply update and restart Reticulum, but you must disable any interfaces that point to the old testnet, and manually create interfaces to the new testnet if you want this.

The same applies for Nomad Network, with a few extra notes:

• You must update Nomad Network to at least version 0.2.0 to use it on the new Reticulum version.
• Old conversations will become unavailable in the program. You may want to archive them beforehand. They will, however, not be deleted from the storage directory. If you don't want them sticking around, you must delete them manually.
• Your LXMF addresses, Node addresses and Propagation Node addresses will change! Take appropriate actions for this.

My new LXMF address is <14299468b08261697083940f54d13b02>.
My new RNS Identity Hash is <da808c445ae28b0bef6af663393ac5eb>.

Please don't hesitate to ask here or via any other channels if you have questions!

Thanks for all your support so far, and see you on v0.3.9!

Mark